


heaven and hell decide they both are satisfied .

by AngeloDiGrazia



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, One Shot, Short One Shot, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:42:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29787309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeloDiGrazia/pseuds/AngeloDiGrazia
Summary: When Prometheus created humans in the Gods’ image, Zeus was threatened by their power. He decided to curse such powerful creatures by splitting them in half and damning them to search for their other halves all their lives. Hera, who pitied them but didn’t want to disrespect her husband’s wishes, gave them a small shred of hope. Every half was born with with the last words they would ever hear their soulmate say tattooed on them, in order to at least know they didn’t have to look anymore.She deemed it a blessing, but how good could it really be?
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Jason Grace
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	heaven and hell decide they both are satisfied .

It was a beautiful day in Greece.

The sun was smiling down on him, forcing him to roll the sleeves of his black t-shirt up to his shoulders as the cotton fabric started to stick to his biceps. 

The green scenery was a lot brighter than his eyes were prepared to handle, reflecting the sunlight as he tried to navigate the endless field of delicate purple buttons of aconite. His only safe guide was the light shadow of the fast moving Jason Grace, who comically sneezed as he went down the hill.

Nico chuckled, the movement forcing him to take a few extra breaths to keep up with his body’s thermostat.

“What’s so funny?” Jason asked, a light smile hovering on his lips. Like it always did.

“Nothing.” Nico said, planning on keeping the answer short. But as more laughter threatened to rumble in his throat, he decided to continue. “It’s just funny that you’re *sensitive* to wolfsbane, out of all things.”

He watched his blond head turn from side to side, as if he wasn’t completely surrounded by the blooming flower, to verify it was really monkshood he’d be walking through. The forced laugh Jason gave him in response to his taunt amused him, but he refrained from voicing it and just continued on their path deeper into the valley.

Nico smiled at the dancing white cotton of his friend’s t-shirt, waving between his shoulder blades as his arms swung next to his body for balance. He went into a distracted explanation on why the flower was so prominent in the specific region of Greece they traveled through. It had something to do with the wolf being the symbol of a city close by and the irony of poisoning their own luck, but with a lot of detailed dates and names Nico didn’t plan to remember.

It was hard to pull much chit chat out of Jason these days, so he was content to listen to his History Professor speeches instead. He was silently and stubbornly going through his very own stages of grief ever since Leo Valdez had died. Or, according to the crew of the Argo II, *mysteriously disappeared*. Nico had tried explaining that, although in a different way than he usually did, he *had *felt Leo die. That little shred of doubt was enough to keep Jason in very vehement denial.

When Nico was asked to shadow travel to what was once Boeotia, he didn’t question it. He was almost certain it would have something to do with the son of Jupiter’s impossible quest to find a dead man, so he didn’t want to ask questions that could possibly lead to an argument. He immediately agreed to poof them five thousand miles across the world (maybe not in one go), even though he didn’t necessarily understand why Leo Valdez would be anywhere close to an empty field on the outskirts of Thiva. 

“What *are* we here for?” Nico asked, squinting his eyes at the flowing river at the bottom of the incline.

Jason only seemed to fasten his pace, as if he was deliberately running away from an answer.

“Jason! We’re already here, what do you think I’m going to do?!” Nico continued, annoyed at the lack of response. 

Jason stopped walking and paused a few seconds before turning back to face him, a false thoughtful wrinkle formed on his forehead.

“Kill me...?” he ventured.

Nico was torn between laughing and simply expressing his confusion. His eyebrow shot up in interrogation as he landed in a mix of both. “What?”

“I came looking for Aoede.” he confessed. “An Ares kid had a run-in with her last month when he came on holiday with his parents and—“

The list of questions Nico had about their trip only grew as he listened to Jason ramble about this random demigod’s encounter with... Aoede? He almost pulled a mental muscle trying to remember who in Hades was this person, until he landed on an ancient myth about the original muses. 

“A muse. Of voice and song? She’s not even a goddess—“

“She’s a goddess, Nico!” Jason interrupted himself so scold him and quickly continued. “Anyway, she told Marius that demigods had ruined the only thing that reminded mortals of her and she was angry with... all of them and their mothers, or something. And since there were no pictures—“

“You came here to look at a monument to a muse.” 

It wasn’t exactly a question. It was more the verbalization of the realization that Jason was taking his job as an ambassador of every minor deity way too seriously.

“Yes. She is my sister!” Jason shrugged. “She deserves accurate representation at the camps.”

“Half the women in the _world_ are your sisters, Jason!” Nico shook his head, spreading his arms in exasperation. “Did you forget whose royal testicles you came out of?!”

The sky rumbled softly, which was very uncharacteristic for an early September day where there wasn’t a cloud in sight. Both of them looked up at the blue veil that stretched beyond the hilltops and waited for the possible demise of Nico Di Angelo. 

The king of the gods, however, must have been in an especially good mood, because the deadly bolt never came.

“Why would that make me want to kill you, anyway, Pontifex?” Nico asked, breaking the silence and turning his attention back to the blond.

Jason’s shoulders raised as his chest inflated as if he were about to expel whatever had been bothering him in a _boom_. Instead, his shoulders slumped and he deflated very slowly, like a punctured balloon, and mumbled a set of incomprehensible words that Nico leaned forward to try and understand.

“What?”

“Hum...” Jason advertently avoided his gaze, suddenly very interested in inspecting the buckle of his sword belt. “So, this used to be Thespiae, you know! Back in the ancient days.”

“Fun.” Nico put as much sarcasm in his interjection as possible. “Very informative. What about it?”

“Well, when I was looking for Aoede’s monument I found another... Relevant piece of art originating in the area. I found two actually... But one was the patron god of the city.” Jason was clearly stalling with the History dump, something Nico usually enjoyed listening to but that was now getting on his nerves. “But it was stolen by Emperor Caligula, and then Nero, and th—“

“The point, Grace?” 

With a sigh and a slight tilt of his head, Jason offered him a sheepish smile. “It’s the statue of Eros of Praxiteles-...!”

Nico felt his face drop, almost literally, since his jaw fell slightly open in outrage. 

“But, but!” Jason raised his voice a little, trying to overlap a very likely intervention from Nico. “It’s gone, and the city is gone and it would be just the most ridiculous bad luck if his influence was still _that_ strong around here that he would be a problem! There are barely any people around!”

Nico remained silent, watching Jason trying to both excuse and reassure himself that there was no danger. Cupid had easily become the biggest panic-inducing deity for Nico, and he didn’t look forward to raising the chances of a meeting. But Jason had absolutely no reason to be that overly apologetic about it, even though secretly Nico did want to hurt him a little bit.

“If we’re quick, we may not even see either of t—“

“Cupid!?” 

Jason’s shoulders tensed again as he looked at Nico, cheeks puffed mid-sentence and hand fidgeting with the hilt of his spatha. “...Yeah?”

He didn’t know what else to say. He couldn’t exactly tell him how much he hated the mere mention of the god, even though they both knew what the guy had done. He couldn’t say how he still felt anxious thinking about how he had been pushed into a conversation he didn’t want to have, even if it had brought at least one good thing into his life. And that good thing had decided to throw him into the love god’s home turf.

“Seriously...” A sigh followed the word and he passed Jason to continue walking towards the water. There was no point in arguing when that only meant staying in the same place for longer. “Hurry up, then.”

He could almost feel the sinking ozone that previously fell heavier around them dissipate as Jason relaxed. He didn’t have to look back to know that he was silently thanking the skies for the almost perfect outcome of their chat. He thanked his father more than one would expect as someone who had been wronged by the gods incessantly.

“You know the Thespians worshipped other people too.” He continued, and Nico had to make a serious effort to pretend he wasn’t interested in the History lesson that was about to follow. “Venus was one, but that’s expected... And of course the Muses. And... Juno.”

“Oh, joy.”

Another forced laugh.

“She’s not that bad,” Jason said. “Wouldn’t you be bitter too if you were married to my father?”

“Forgive me if I don’t feel for Hera, mommy’s boy.” Nico rolled his eyes. “Do you have an excuse for Eros, too?”

Jason laughed, this time genuinely. The action echoed in the valley and, mixed with the soft sounds of nature that surrounded them, it almost sounded like a fabrication of Nico’s mind. 

“I have absolutely no excuse for Eros.” He started. “He’s just a big bully. And you letting him get to you is just giving him what bullies want. Attention.”

“I can’t exactly turn it off on command, Jason.” Nico ran his hand through his forehead, mostly to get rid of the uncomfortable sensation of wet hair sticking to his skin. “Why would the muse be based in his city, anyway?”

“I don’t know,” Jason admitted. “But there’s a lot of stories involving Eros and the Muses. The Little Mermaid, for example.”

Nico laughed as he passed over a larger boulder, happy to be only a couple of steps away from the water that ran the center of the valley and therefore closer to their destination.

“Only you would make the Little Mermaid the gods’ fault.” 

“Everything is their fault. I just _brought_ it to your attention...” Jason mumbled.

Nico wondered sometimes how there were people at Camp Half-Blood who were still intimidated by Jason Grace. Had they looked past the Roman, stoic looks and seen the same muttering tot he talked to daily? Did they see the constant smiles? Or the occasional pout whenever he faced the slightest inconvenience?

He had once seen Jason apologize to a table on behalf of the Americans for it being stolen from the Parthenon (and this was a full-blown monologue in which he listed the reasons why this mahogany table should be back in its home and not in Chiron’s living room).

“How can the God of Love be so damn against it?” Nico asked, quietly voicing a thought that had been bothering him for a few months. 

“Because, more than the God of Love, he’s an insufferable little—“

Nico saw it a few seconds too late to have an appropriate reaction. There was a ripple in the space directly ahead of them, so strong it created a ripple in the water beneath it. He’d felt that kind of push in the air before, and it had pointed at Jason’s chest then too. He tried to pull the son of Jupiter out of the way of the invisible projectile but as his fingers circled his forearm, they were both thrown back by the brute force of the attack.

Jason groaned as his weight crushed the tall flowers, bent and broken stalks of aconite falling on him, and an equally stunned Nico as he tried to sit up. 

_You had to take it a step too far, Jason Grace._

The voice echoed inside Nico's head and he couldn’t help but audibly moan a complaint as he let himself fall back down, defeated by their luck.

Unlike Nico, Jason seemed to stay down because it was a genuine struggle to sit himself up and not by choice. 

_You two come into my territory_ again _and dare to insult me? Have you learned nothing the last time I had... the pleasure?_

He could feel the tinnitus growing in his ears as the bitterness of Cupid’s words navigated his brain like he’d just experienced a drastic change in atmospheric pressure. The vegetation around them moved, waves of green and purple curling away from them as if trying to run from the epicenter of the starting earthquake that was the god’s presence.

This time, the warning of a coming projectile was clear enough that he was able to push Jason away from its trajectory and simultaneously roll himself in the opposite direction. The flattened patch of grass where they’d been lying exploded into itself and caused a short rainfall of dirt in a considerable radius.

“Jason, get up!” Nico shouted urgently, as he pushed himself to his feet.

His hand shot to the silver hilt of his stygian sword as he looked around. The light groaning behind him reassured him that Jason was indeed moving and getting ready to cover his back.

 _We have played this game before, Nico._ the deep familiar voice of Amor sounded, a faint glint of amusement in its tone. _And if I remember correctly, I won._

“Yeah! Except for this time you have nothing on us, pal!” Nico taunted, the true weight of his words falling on him almost instantly after they left his lips.

Jason now stood at his side, holding on to his ribs and grimacing as he leaned down to Nico’s height and his face hovered into his personal space.

“Okay, I insulted him but that was a stupid thing to say, even for me.” He offered in a whisper, to which Nico rolled his eyes.

“Shit.” He complained, under his breath. 

With a deep breath, looking at the hills that surrounded them, Nico desperately tried to come up with an exit plan. Unfortunately, their only way out was up... Or down. He imagined the first option wouldn’t be a problem for Jason, were they not fight an invisible flying god. Again. And unfortunately for them, Nico didn’t have Hazel’s dexterity when it came to underground navigation. 

_I don’t think you understand how unwelcome you are here._ Cupid’s voice sounded threateningly calm. _Even if it is where you're supposed to be, no one wants you here._

“We didn’t come to talk to you,” Jason growled. “Let people speak for themselves, maybe? We know you love to hear the sound of your own voice but—“

 _Oh, the innocence..._ Nico could hear the passive-aggressive intonations in the deep echo of the god’s voice. _What do you think brought you here, Jason Grace? Your altruism? A quest? A promise?_

“Nico?” Jason tried, tone as taunting as Eros’ seemed to be. 

A shiver went down Nico’s spine as laugher rumbled inside his head. He didn’t expect it to be a sign that they were somehow off the hook, that the god found the blond endearing and amusing, so his _fight or flight_ instinct only seemed to keener to kick in.

 _Oh, dear..._ The god sounded pleased with the development of the conversation. _You don’t even know how right you are_.

“Yeah, yeah...” Jason bit back. “Why don’t you just go back to your _shooting arrows at mortals_ agenda and let us talk to Aoede?” 

There seemed to be a sudden halt in all the sounds around them. He could still see the movement of the leaves, but there was no sound to it. The chirping of the birds died out, along with the soft burble of the river. 

Jason’s determined brow softened in order for him to share a concerned look with Nico. They both knew they were most likely in trouble but there was no way he was going to let Cupid bully him a second time, so it didn’t seem like they had a choice. They were fighting a god.

To Nico’s surprise - emphasis on the word _surprise_ \- instead of another invisible blast, an answer came their way. _As you wish_.

He almost wished for an arrow instead.

From the almost painful silence came an excruciatingly high-pitched sound, a desperate and pained scream of a woman that transpired a multitude of negative emotions. Fear. Anger. Grief.

Both Nico and Jason recoiled to it, instinctively covering their ears to try and lower the progressively higher volume that filled their minds.

It took only a few seconds before it started to feel like his head was going to implode. It was hard to open his eyes, any chance of relaxing any of his muscles growing proportionally thinner to his pain. He watched Jason, who seemed to be equally incapacitated, as he tried to find a physical way out of a clearly not physical problem. 

He didn’t know how long they’d been uselessly covering their ears, or how much longer they’d have to endure the torturous sound. But Nico felt like he was on the verge of passing out. 

And that was when everything blurred into a disaster.

Jason suddenly grabbed his wrist, slightly hunching down so that his face would hover at the same level as Nico’s like people did when they wanted to hastily say something in a loud club or party. Once their eyes met, the blond tried to convey his message but it was hard to perceive anything in such a disorientating setting. 

After a few attempts at verbal communication, Jason visibly gave up and pulled Nico into a protective embrace. The gesture would have surprised him more, were he not vehemently trying to decipher the words Jason’s lips had drawn under that high-pitched scream. 

He didn’t have time to try and squirm out of the strategically placed hand on the back of his head that tucked his face safely into the dent of Jason’s shoulder before he felt the sudden and welcome change in the air.

An electrifying wave passed through him, almost pushing him back and away from the son of Jupiter. It wasn’t painful or uncomfortable, it was just an unfamiliar pressure that tugged on his skin. Then, there was silence.

Not just comfortable silence, but the shilling, complete absence of sound. For a moment, it was pleasant and refreshing to have quiet, to have peace again. But the moment he tried to take a deep breath in his relief, he found he couldn’t. 

Nico tried to breathe a second time and, meeting resistance, he grabbed Jason’s sides in a panicked attempt to get his attention. 

The silence was replaced by a strained gasp, followed by the return of nature’s rumble to Nico’s ears as his friend stumbled away from him. He tried another inhale and was happy to feel the air fill his lungs. He repeated the motion a few more times before he looked around.

“I’m sorry!” Jason gasped, his chest heaving as he came back up from a recovery position. “I’m sorry! That was the only thing I could think of! Sound doesn’t—“

“Travel through vacuum.” Nico finished, his mind working out what had happened.

Jason nodded, visibly tired from his little trick. “Yeah.”

He watched Nico apologetically. When he realized Jason was trying to measure up how badly he’d hurt him by changing the atmospheric pressure, Nico waved him off. 

“I’m fine!” He reassured. “It’s fine.”

They both returned their attention to their surroundings, remembering there was a bigger threat somewhere in the hills of the greek town.

He would lie if he said he wasn’t impressed. Or a little scared that Jason was capable of something as suffocating as what he had just experienced. He got distracted, watching his friend’s sky blue orbs worryingly scan the horizon for rippling air, his expression softly changing with his thoughts, not even considering the possibilities such power entailed. So distracted he completely missed the shadow that settled over himself before a sharp blow sent him flying a few feet back.

Nico rubbed the dirt off his face shortly after he fell, trying to ignore the generalized pain that lingered from the blow. He vaguely heard his name being called as he tried to see past sunlight and vibrant colors to his assailant.

A beautiful woman stood where he had been. Her long black wait cascaded down her shoulders and back, highly contrasting with the simple white chiton that covered her figure. Her tan skin looked almost golden under the sunlight that also reflected off her bright, familiar cyan eyes.

She glared at Nico, what he imagined had been soft features now wrinkled in passive anger before she slowly turned to Jason. 

“Smart boy.” She stated, flatly. Her voice was melodic, almost entrancing like charm speak but devoid of any of its magical properties. She just sounded like comfort and good things, which was very conflicting when she looked at them in such a menacing way. “You think you can silence me.”

What startled him was the fact that it wasn’t a question. If anything, it sounded like a challenge or a threat, which seemed to throw Jason off as much as it did Nico. 

“I came to help,” Jason said, raising his hands in surrender. “Make sure you’re remembered.”

The goddess smiled, but even that seemed devoid of emotion. She tilted her head, admiring the demigod in front of her like one does when deciding what to eat first at a buffet.

“We were forgotten, my sisters and I...” Aoede spoke through clenched teeth, the growing rage evident in her jawline. “Replaced. By the favorites of the Olympians... Discarded.”

“I can h-“

“Olympians and their little demigods always destroy everything.” She interrupted Jason by raising her tone of voice and gliding a little closer to him. “What if I kill you? They’ll remember that.”

“Ha.” Jason nodded slowly, his hands falling slowly. “Yeah, I don’t think so...”

“Two children of the eldest gods... Heaven and Hell, as other religions would say...” She hummed to herself, getting within an arms reach of Jason. “It’s almost poetic.” 

_It’s tragic._

Cupid’s amused remark snapped Nico out of his stupor. He quickly got back on his feet, hand firmly wrapped around the hilt of his sword as he waited for an attack. He trusted Jason could take care of himself and the god of love was _his_ to fight. 

_Always so eager..._ The god mocked, as Nico looked around to try and pinpoint his location. He didn’t have to try very hard, because the next words sounded very close to his ear. _It’s not you I want._

He was a little stunned to slash his sword to his right and, by the time his brain processed the information he knew the god would have moved out of reach. So he unsheathed his sword and only had the chance to take a couple of steps forward before being stopped.

Aoede moved faster than either of the demigods expected, her sharp nails digging into the skin of Jason’s throat as she calmly stood behind him, her hooded eyes piercing into Nico. 

“Ah, ah, ah.” She warned.

He saw the doubt in Jason’s eyes as he pleadingly looked at Nico. And Nico didn’t know what exactly he was asking for.

Knowing Jason, he’d beg him to leave. Run while one of them still can. But he also knew there was no chance of that happening. Nico didn’t know this goddess, he didn’t know what exactly she was capable of apart from blowing up their heads with high-frequency screams. But he knew you always had to be careful with gods.

The air shimmered next to the scene and the figure of a man slowly faded into existence. The lines of the silhouette reflected gold flecks, similar to monster dust, as it extended into the fully opaque form of the man Nico remembered from Croatia.

He had the same perfectly trimmed short hair, as golden as his skin. His blue eyes smiled at him in a mischievous and interested way before they turned to face the scene he’d encouraged. He had a strong nose, a sharp jaw, and his high cheekbones reflected almost as much light from the sun as his unrealistically white shirt. 

A beautiful man, but Nico knew he was rotten on the inside.

“Ah, Jason...” He sighed with a sympathetic smirk. “You’re looking a lot like you need a... How did you put it? An insufferable little shit - to ruin your day.”

“You said it,” Jason mumbled, resulting in the claws tightening on his neck.

Nico didn’t know what to do. If he moved, Jason was toast. If he didn’t, he was _most likely_ toast too. Unless he behaved. But was Nico going to risk it?

“Just do what he wants!” Nico told him. “He’ll go away.”

The love god smiled at Nico and hummed in agreement, while Jason didn’t seem too happy to comply.

“Yes, Nico might be right,” Eros said. “But I do have a very unhappy friend who I promised blood to, so... We’ll see.”

“You know threatening someone without the prospect of a way out doesn’t really work, right?” 

Cupid’s happier demeanor dropped at the commentary his hostage provided. He exhaled through his nose, nostrils flaring as he looked directly at Jason with an unamused expression.

“You’re very confident for someone with so much to hide.” He continued. “Seems I was right in Croatia. About your doubts.”

This time, Jason didn’t speak. His eyes moved between Nico and the god addressing him, jaw visibly clenched as he tried to seem unbothered by the conversation.

“Hmm...” The Cupid’s melodic chuckle echoed around them. “I want two things today: the truth, and an apology.”

The blond demigod huffed a laugh and rolled his eyes before letting his gaze land on Nico. Knowing what was about to happen filled him with a dread he hadn’t felt in a long time. The fear of losing someone you care about is always something that can render a person useless, stagnant and hopelessly unhelpful.

The fear of losing someone you _love_.

“No,” Jason said, his conviction being what scared Nico the most.

“Jason!” Nico called but directed his speech at Eros. “He’s sorry. We’re sorry.”

“No, I’m not,” Jason said matter of factly.

He saw the god raise his index finger and mouth the word _One_ while he smiled at Nico. He had said that he wasn’t the one he was after but the man was clearly taunting him.

“Tell him what he wants to know!” Nico implored. “Don’t be fucking stubborn right now, Jason! Whatever it is just—... please.”

There was quiet for the long few seconds Jason took to consider the request.

Nico wasn’t interested in watching Cupid but he could clearly see him in his peripheral, smile growing as the probably correct sense of victory grew in his chest. He still held his finger up, patiently waiting to add another to his count.

“Fine.” Jason wasn’t happy to concede but he took a deep breath that released a single droplet of blood from a pressure point on his neck. “What do you want me to say?”

The handsome god looked at the now smirking face of the goddess, her lips hovering close to the skin of Jason’s ear and the king curtain of black, silky hair covering both their shoulders as she leaned forward. Eros didn’t have to speak for her to understand what he needed from her, and so she spoke.

“What were you trying to tell your friend before you kindly interrupted my scream?” 

It was a strange thing to ask. 

Nico would’ve completely forgotten about that small gesture had no one brought it up. He was curious now, seeing as it was something the gods felt the need to get out of Jason’s chest like some kind of defining truth. The blond looked as confused by the inquiry as Nico felt.

Nico stared Love in the face as he reached the maximum his lips could physically stretch, his smile sending a shiver down his spine. Somehow, Nico took this as a bad omen. It made him nervous that the god was so happy and confident Jason was going to give him what he wanted. It made his breathing fasten in anticipation, hoping that the blond would indeed give their personal bully what he wanted. 

Before any answer came from the trapped demigod, he watched as a middle finger rose to join the single digit that already marked Cupid’s scoreboard with certainty.

 _Two_.

“Don’t breathe?” Jason offered, and Nico obeyed.

He felt like time stopped for him, the air getting trapped in his trachea as he tried to move it in any direction. The lifelong tattoo he’d read countless times burned deeper into his skin, the virtual it caused pain traveling fast to his heart. 

The ache seemed to send the world into a slower speed, things happening with a lot more detail than Nico wanted to perceive.

 _You’ll meet them, one day._ He remembered his mother telling him, amidst tears and thoughts of unfairness. *If you’re lucky, you’ll live happy lives before you know it’s goodbye.*

There was no such thing as luck.

Eros glared at Jason, whose confusion had not dissolved, and sighed in what seemed to be relief as his eyes closed.

“Ditto.” he whispered.

The moment the god spoke, nails dragged across Jason’s neck leaving a trail of dark red jagged lines behind. The son of Jupiter opened his mouth in shock, mimicking Nico's own unfurl into a scream. 

Both gods vanished into thin air, leaving Jason to fall helpless onto the bright tall grass. 

Nico sprinted, an attempt to catch him before he reached the ground, but he was already on his back, clawing at pouring blood and staring at his own hands in disbelief.

“Jason!” Nico let himself drop on his knees next to him, unsure of what to do or what to say. He could feel the tears crawling up his throat and did his best to swallow them down. “Oh m— It's okay. It’s okay.”

He repeated the words a few times, more to himself than to Jason. His hands trembled as they rested on the wounds of the other’s neck, trying to decide if he wanted to apply pressure on his windpipe or not. There was no right thing to do and, if there was, he didn’t know it.

“I’m- I’m sorry, I don’t-...” Nico choked, shaking his head.

Jason’s hand rested on his wrist as he tried to speak through the gurgling sound that escaped him whenever he attempted it. Nico knew he wouldn’t. He knew he wouldn’t hear another word from him, and it sent another wave of sharp pain through him.

He thought of Croatia. He thought of all the moments that followed that. The late-night talks, the light sword practices. He thought of Jason’s _Brownie Sundays_ and how he wouldn’t let himself miss one, even though Nico hated chocolate. He thought about bonfires, walks, crappy advice.

He thought of how he wasn’t ready to give that up. 

“It’s fine, you’ll be okay!” He lied, the words struggling to form. “We’ll get you h—“

Home.

People could help back at Camp Half-Blood. He just had to manage enough strength to get them back. 

Nico knew it was a stretch, but he’d made it in not that many tries with a giant magic statue and two other people. He could make it with Jason.

He knew there was no way around it. That there was nothing he could do to change old magic, nothing he could do to break prophecies more ancient than most of the Parthenon itself. But it wasn’t going to stop him from trying. 

The words on his left wrist stared back at him, tainted red by their final blow, and took a deep breath before disappearing into the darkness with the certainty that he’d just watched half of himself die in Greece.

*

He woke up in a well-lit room. White walls were illuminated by the warmth of the morning sun, which would have been nice if it didn’t immediately burn his eyeballs. 

Sitting up in the soft mattress he was sleeping on, Nico rubbed at his face in an attempt to wipe away the grogginess of good sleep. He spied the light scar of his familiar tattoo and lowered his arm to stare at it like he did almost every morning since he remembered. 

This time, its sight offered a complimentary sense of loss and it triggered a flow of memories that exacerbated the painful, heavy feeling in his chest.

_Don’t breathe._

And again, he didn’t.

Nico jumped out of bed, stumbling a little and tripping over his bare feet as he hastily crashed into the door. As he pulled it open, he realised he didn’t remember arriving at Camp. He didn’t even know if he had made it that far. He must have passed out from exhaustion wherever his shadow travel had taken him. 

He was relieved to see an ocean of orange t-shirt’s navigating the halls of the infirmary, but not enough to calm his fast, hopeful heart.

Nico was a logical, objective person. He assessed things based on facts, he did what had to be done. But when it came to Jason...

He didn’t accept it.

A blond head crashed into him as he hurried down the corridor, loud clicking noises following the impact as medical tools fell to the ground. Nico was ready to ignore it and keep going, but a hand grabbed his bicep in an attempt to steady him.

“Nico!” The surprised voice of Will Solace distracted him from his goal. “You’re up!”

He tried to read his tone, understand if there was anything behind it that might hint at the bearing of bad news. He couldn’t understand if Will was nervous or just genuinely startled to see him out of bed either, which didn’t help his impatient mood.

“Yeah.” Nico politely replied, the hoarseness itching his throat as he tried to sidestep away from the conversation.

Normally, he’d be happy to see Will. He was one of the few people he was comfortable talking to at Camp. He even thought that they had the potential for something more than friendly banter, but he quickly realized he was being unfair to both of them by considering it. Nico didn’t want Will, he just thought the person he wanted was completely unattainable.

“H-hey!” Blond curls bounced as Will’s head tilted into Nico’s field of vision. “Maybe... Maybe we should talk. You need to eat something too, yeah?”

Nico studied Will’s smile in silence. He took in the way his friend pursed his lips, the way his brows furrowed in all the wrong places. He’d seen that so many times, and all those times he knew what was coming. It was what he expected: bad news.

He took a staggered breath and watched Will’s face fall, eyes tightening into a worried glance and hand slipping over Nico's shoulder ready for one arm, sympathetic hug he gave people after he told them he couldn’t reattach their arm. 

As tired as he felt, that was enough to tip him over the edge and Nico let out a very needed sob as his forehead touched the muscular shoulder he was now used to cry on. 

“Oh, Nico...” Will sighed as he rubbed the center of his back. “Come on, let’s get back to your room, okay?”

He was vaguely aware of Will asking someone else to clean up the mess on the tiled floor as he lead them back into the very white room Nico had come out of.

As soon as the door closed, something else opened in his chest, like Aoede’s claws were digging into it the same way they had—...

“Fuck!” Nico screamed, palm pressed to the soft spot of his forehead right between his eyebrows. “ _Gods_ damned!”

“Hey...” Will’s voice sounded small behind him, like he was afraid to raise his voice and somehow cause Nico to get even more upset. “Sit down, will ya?”

“Si—!” Nico shook his head and sniffled. “No, no, no, no...”

“Nico.” Will tried, a little louder this time, his hand reaching for Nico’s shoulder. 

He waved his hand away and paced around the room. It felt smaller, stuffier. He couldn’t breathe.

“It was supposed to be a friendly mission, we were just going to talk to her!” He shook his head at Will and blinked the tears forming in his eyes away. “We were just going to talk...”

His friend nodded at him in understanding, nothing but pity and concern riddling his eyes. It didn’t help Nico feel any better. 

“Oh, I know...” There it was again, the mechanical sympathy of someone who did this twenty times a day. 

It was weird how well it worked. He didn’t know how Apollo kids did it, how they radiated this aura that dissipated his anger so easily. He was usually thankful for the effect Will and his attempts at the many different types of pastries brought him but, in this case, he wanted to be angry. If the anger was gone, all he had left was guilt, pain, and the knowledge that he’d lost his soulmate before he even started living.

“Come here...” 

Will’s arms opened to take him into the safety of his warmth, and Nico didn’t have it in him to refuse it. His tears soaked through the soft flannel of Will’s shirt as he patiently held him as he cried. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, completely still apart from his heaving chest, hands softly drawing the same pattern on the back of his head and shoulders, before he felt slightly comforted.

The tears stopped and he slowly detached himself from his only source of solace to wipe the humidity off his nose with the back of his hand. 

“Better?” Will asked, taking a pack of tissues out of his shirt pocket and offering him to Nico, who quietly thanked him.

“I’m sorry.” He said. “I just...”

“Crying is good!” Will interrupted with a smiling shrug. “In a weird way, I’m happy you finally let that out. I was starting to think you weren’t human.”

Nico shook his head, dismissing the guy’s attempt to lighten the mood, and continued to blow his nose.

“Alright!” The medic clapped once, offering Nico his jacket that had previously been loosely hanging behind the door. “Are you ready to come see him?”

“I—....” Nico shook his head slowly and wrapped his hand around the dark brown leather to take its weight. “I don’t know. I’ve seen enough.”

“Oookay, Jesus!” Will’s eyes shot up in judgment. “Well, he asked for you so whatever you have to get over, do it fast. He’s been insufferable.”

Nico couldn’t help let out a strangled laugh. “...What?”

“What?” Will repeated, hand resting on the door handle. “I don’t know what happened but he thinks you’re mad, so you probably are! But you had a couple of days to sleep on it so chop chop, I need both your rooms for the Ares Cabin.”

He stared at Will in confusion, causing the same reaction on the son of Apollo and leading to both of them just looking at each other for a really long moment.

He tried not to let his hope come back too fast before he understood what kind of information he was missing. Had he heard Will right? Were they talking about the same person? What was happening? Was Jason not...

“Oh!” Will threw his head back in some sort of display of realization. “Oh no, sweetie. I thought you were just frustrated, Jason’s not _dead_! Give me some credit, please! He’s pretty beaten up and I _might_ kill him if he keeps going through ten chocolate puddings a day but—“

Nico stopped listening. A lot of thoughts flooded his mind at the same time. His brain went from mellow and slow to ecstatic and hyperactive in less than a second. Jason was alive! He was okay and Nico didn’t have to deal with losing yet another person. He didn’t have to wonder...

He looked down at his naked wrist. The words, the _last words_ his fated other half would say to him still embed into his skin. And if Jason was alive, that wasn’t him. It couldn't be him.

Nico ignored the faint hint of disappointment that his behind his happiness and pushed Will out of the way, pulling the door open. 

“That’s what you should have started with!”

“How should I know you thought Jason was dead!?” Will raised his eyebrows and composed himself, taking a step back from the doorway.

“His neck was slit open!” Nico bit back, causing an Apollo camper to stop at his tone as he passed by.

Nico groaned and stormed down the corridor.

“Last door to the left!” He heard Will shout from his room.

He shouldn’t be that upset that this had just been a really bad coincidence. If they weren’t predestined to be each other’s soulmates that meant he could have Jason for longer. Maybe even his whole life. And it shouldn’t matter to him if they were romantically involved. Nico had learned to be alone, he was happy with that. Or he thought he was.

Without knocking, Nico took a deep breath and opened the light wooden door. 

He sighed at the sight of Jason, sitting up in his bed in a t-shirt and gym shorts, a ballpoint pen in his hand that he was using to lightly tap the side of a book with. He lifted his eyes from his reading and gave Nico a toothy smile that made him want to scream or cry with relief.

“Hey.” Nico greeted, taking a step inside.

Jason didn’t reply, he just nodded once, his eyes still smiling at him as he lowered his book into his lap.

Nico examined the dressing on his neck. It seemed smaller than he remembered the wound to be, hopefully meaning it had healed a little or maybe that his panic had exaggerated the situation. Either way, Jason looked good. Healthy. He didn’t look like the ghostly figure Nico expected to see. That was enough for him.

The blond tapped the empty mattress in front of him, which Nico took as an invitation to sit down. 

“You’re an idiot.” He said, pulling his leg up on the side of the bed to sit at its feet facing Jason. “You didn’t use to have that big of a mouth.”

He huffed, shoulders shaking slightly as he shrugged and lowered his head. He was still smiling, which made Nico’s mouth stretch a little into the prospect of a smile.

“...Are you okay?” Nico asked.

Jason nodded.

“Is there... Did I do something?”

He furrowed his light eyebrows and shot Nico a confused look.

“Are you not talking to me?” Nico tried to keep his small smile, even though he was genuinely worried he wasn’t getting a word out of Jason.

The son of Jupiter opened his mouth like he was going to say something but quickly closed it, sighing with a sheepish smile on his stupidly handsome face.

Nico was getting ready to protest when the answer came from behind him.

“He can’t.”

Looking over his shoulder, Nico saw Will standing with his shoulder against the door frame. He gave him a one-shoulder shrug and bit his lower lip, which was something he usually did when he was trying to keep himself from looking too amused for a situation that required a professional attitude.

“There’s nothing physically wrong with his vocal cords.” Will continued, looking past Nico and smiling at Jason. “We’re thinking maybe... curse?”

Jason nodded, huffing a single soundless laugh.

“Wha— Can we fix it?” Nico asked, looking from Will to Jason.

“He doesn’t want to.” Will shrugged again, eyes fixed on Jason.

They seemed to be concluding a silent conversation they had started before Nico arrived at the scene. He looked between the two boys a couple of times before shaking his head at Jason in disbelief.

“Why?” He sat up straighter on the bed. “How are you okay with this?”

Jason tilted his head, his eyes softening before he took a deep breath and leaned forward to hold Nico’s left hand. He turned his palm up, thumb running through the scarred skin of his wrist before he looked back up to meet his eyes.

A knot formed in his throat as he stared into the infinite blue of his eyes, his heart beating loudly in his ears.

“Oh.” He swallowed.

“Anyway,” Will stepped inside the room and extended his hand in their direction. “This was on your nightstand.”

Nico took a small postcard from his friend, who winked at him and left the room without another word. 

He looked down at the piece of paper, a shiny picture of a winged statue of Cupid with the words **Eros. Picadilly Circus. London.** on the top. The paper was yellowed out. It looked old and the few people at the base of the statue wore the type of clothes Nico was used to seeing in his childhood. 

As he turned the postcard to the written side, Jason shifted in bed, his head inching closer to read the beautifully handwritten note:

> YOU’RE WELCOME. FROM AN INSUFFERABLE LITTLE SHIT. - E

The two boys shared another happy look before their smiles turned into laughter.

Maybe they were lucky after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is a secret valentine’s day gift! I’m sorry IM SO SORrY Leor! But you know it’s not like me to do a simple, cute soulmate AU! 
> 
> Love ya ❤️


End file.
